How Does Finny Lose His Innocence

Finny's leg injury caused him to not be at Devon for a few weeks, giving Gene room to experience guilt. In the days following Finny's accident, Knowles paints Gene as grief-ridden and regretful, with Gene expressing, "I spent as much time as I could in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was," (62). Gene's guilt shows that he did not intentionally cause the fall. Gene's guilt also evidences that Gene did not consciously want Finny to fall and had no severe feelings of malevolence other than slight envy. Upon hearing that Finny cannot do sports again, Gene reacts with shock and sorrow (Knowles 63).

Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, also reveals that human nature never changes. Knowles, reveals the tragic flaw of jealousy, that has continuously plagued human nature. Gene’s envy of Finny’s exceptional personality and character, reveals this terrible flaw. Human nature has always contained jealousy or envy, but Knowles’ novel reveals its truly destructive nature, through the characters’ thoughts and actions. Gene’s character, illustrates the progression of human nature and jealousy. A pattern is revealed, that simple jealousy forces action, which in turn, creates guilt and internal punishment. This represents the static nature of humans, who change very little. Gene’s envy, forces him to act, which creates enormous guilt that he must now carry. Knowles reveals that humans do not change or learn, even after a great tragedy. Gene may have learned from his actions, but all the other characters, will take no heed. This shows that although humans should learn from their past mistakes, they do not pay attention, and continue doing what they know they should not. Gene “jounced the limb,” (Knowles 60,) thus ending Finny’s life. Humans however, will not change, and another person

The competition within the friendship, Gene's inability to share his feelings with Finny, and Gene's paranoia are main factors in the development of the conflict that leads to Gene jouncing the limb. One example of Gene's paranoia is when Finny first forces Gene to jump off the tree, Gene ponders to himself, "Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind

People are colliding into battles continuously around the globe. It's not always a physical brawl between two armed forces but it also occur mentally and emotionally. On page 139 of A Separate Peace, a quote was mentioned by Gene, "...because it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and theirs special stupidities but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart..." This quote can relate to the novel, a personal experience and another literary work.

Knowles adds Gene was,” holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (59-60). Gene’s behavior caused him to spontaneously hurt Finny. With Finny injured, Gene over looked it which caused him to mock his identity. Gene turned his relationship with Finny toxic, but he was still able to achieve

Throughout John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, Gene’s internal struggle is reflected in the war taking place. In the beginning of the story, Finny tells Gene that he was reading the paper and saw that “[the United States] bombed Central Europe...”(25). At this point in the story, it is 1942, which is the midst of World War II. This reflects Gene’s attitude toward Finny. As the war starts to escalate and the United States enters, Gene starts to loathe Finny for reasons that are entirely from Gene’s head. When Finny returns to Devon for the winter session, he has convinced himself, and soon convinces Gene, that “there isn’t any war”(115). Around this time, Gene pushes away his hateful thoughts towards Finny and convinces himself that Finny and him

Finny wouldn’t make a capable soldier due to his purity and innocence. In addition, Finny does not contain an ounce of malice inside of himself. He simply could not kill another human being. Throughout the course of the novel, all Finny ever wanted was fun, which for him was not found in winning or losing, but in playing. Finny’s main belief was “everyone always won at sports,” (page 27). However, war is based off winning and losing. You simply cannot have that mindset during a battle. Gene realizes, Finny lacks desire and comprehension, to do true evil. The closest Finny has ever gotten is in athletics, and even there he constantly switches teams to keep the “competition” going. ”You’d make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war” (page 182). Even during a snowball fight Finny switches sides. According to Gene, Finny would not know what side to fight for.

I think that Gene does kill his innocence. I think this because even though he didn't mean to have finny fall of the tree, the way he did it made it look like he was trying to. Because of the way that he made it look he got blamed for trying to make finny fall of the tree. Know because of what he did he has to lose his innocence because he did something that was not innocent, which ruined his reputation of being innocent. Another way that Gene killed his innocence is that when he yelled at finny about always trying to make him do bad on his test by making him quit studying and having him go out and do something sporty. By doing this he made himself look like a fool because finny thought that he didn't need to study, but he also killed his

In the last lines of A Separate Peace, Gene seemingly reflects on his schoolboy life at Devon, a competitive, and secluded school. Throughout the passage, Gene repeatedly uses the words “I never”. The repetition in the sentence structure may be a way of showing emotional distress, while at the same time emphasising a high degree of introspection. Gene seems to be obsessed with trying to kill his “enemy.” The word “enemy” could have multiple layers of meanings, it may refer to Phineas, to the psychological conflict within Gene’s mind, or to the military enemy in the World War II. This leads to to the question what killing the “enemy” means. It may refer to Phineas’s physical death or to the resolution of Gene’s inner conflict since

After the limb was jounced, Finny lost his balance and fell onto the bank breaking his leg. During the event, Gene realizes that Finny never wanted to compete with Gene. He just wanted to be his best friend. Gene had “killed” his innocence in this scene because he had hurt Finny out of jealousy and a little irritation. Another scene that showed a loss of innocence was when he was talking about war.

Gene’s act of purposely causing Finny to fall out of the tree forces him to feel guilty and move on from his tendencies of jealousy and anger. After Finny’s fall, Gene discovers that Finny is so faithful as to not even accuse Gene of his actions. This causes Gene to begin to feel extreme guilt, thence

would have to say yes, you do have to loose your innocence behind in order to mature. It shows that you are getting older. It shows that a person has learned something. As you get older you get wiser in the world. It shows that you know the world is not perfect, nor is it fair. You have learned to deal with it. You have to think about the outcome of everything. Make sure you know what you are about to do won’t hurt anyone or anything. Like Gene, he certainly did not loose his innocence. He let his jealousy get the best of him. If he would have thought about what would happen if he shook the tree branch then maybe Finny wouldn’t have broken his leg. That was a very immature thing. If non of that would have happened, Finny could maybe still

Gene and Finny are faced with many situations where either good or evil will take over their decision. When Finny falls of the tree Gene “took a step toward him, and then [his] knees bent and [he] jounced the limb” (Knowles 60). Gene purposefully makes Finny fall even if neither of them realizes or accepts it at first. When Gene makes the decision to cause Finny to fall, he lets evil win. He lets it take him over to benefit himself in the long run. On the other side of it, when Gene tries to tell Finny that he did intentionally hurt him he said “of course you didn’t do it. You damn fool. Sit down, you damn fool” (Knowles 70). Finny does not want to accept the fact that his friend would do such a thing to him. He pushes out the evil that could have let him lash out at his friend and let the good in him refuse to believe it. Lastly, when Gene was fighting with Quackenbush all of a sudden Gene “hit him hard across the face” (Knowles 790). Gene lets the evil take over him and hit Quackenbush in the

Throughout life, there is always a person who one strives to beat, be better than or rise above. Little does each of them know that in the end the two actually make each other stronger. In John Knowles' novel, A Separate Peace (1959), he addresses just this. The novel, told from Gene Forrester's point of view, is based on a friendship and rivalry between him and his friend, Finny, during World War II. The two sixteen year olds attend Devon School, a private all boys' school, in New Hampshire. Finny, a very athletically talented youngster, continually but unintentionally causes Gene to feel inferior and insignificant, producing inevitable anger and jealousy inside Gene. During their

First, Gene admits to being guilty of shaking a tree in order to injure Finny when he visits him at his home, making Finny livid, and temporarily tearing them apart. Gene is envious of Finny’s athletic ability and bravery. One way Finny shows his bravery is by jumping off a tree for fun. Gene is greatly threatened by the bravery, so he decides to strip it from Finny by shaking the tree one day, making him fall and suffer an injury. Consequently, he instantly regrets his decision, but he realizes that the damage is done. Remorsefully, he wants to apologize for his terrible choice, but when he tries to talk about the situation and confess, Finny is in denial and starts to get angry. Finny’s denial is evident when he says “‘I don’t know anything. Go away. I’m tired and you make me sick. Go away’” (Knowles 70). This dialogue shows how Finny did not believe that Gene caused the incident even after the confession. This is because he believes that Gene would not do such an action. The confession tears Finny apart to the point that he lashes out at Gene and wants him to leave his house. If Gene did not commit the notorious action, Finny would not have to feel the pain physically from the injury, and mentally from the idea that Gene would hurt him, and the boys could have a stronger friendship.